These were notebooks Beethoven used to communicate when his hearing started to go. He would hand them to conversation partners and he’d respond verbally.

Hemingway

Ernest Hemingway famously declared, “I belong to this notebook and this pencil,” usually carrying around a notebook everywhere to record everything from gift lists, expenses, to his wife’s menstrual cycles.

Marie Curie’s notebooks require protective clothing and a liability waiver to peruse her notebooks because they are still radioactive and are locked in lead-lined boxes.

Leonardo Da Vinci

Da Vinci wrote daily in his notebook, amassing about 13,000 pages of his work. His notebooks are most famously known for being written in mirror script, from left to right. This could have been due to him being left-handed and not wanting to smudge his work. His notebooks contain many sketches and notes covering his many interests as an all-around Renaissance man. From art to shopping lists to human anatomy to flying machines – he kept them all together without being precious about what he put in his notebooks.

These are just a few peeks into the notebooks of some of the most famous thinkers and creators.

About Kim Alvarez

Kim Alvarez is the creative behind Tinyrayofsunshine.com, where she writes about the Bullet Journal, productivity, planning, and other creative pursuits. She runs a sunshiney Etsy shop with stationery goods that will bring a smile to your face at tinyrayofsunshine.etsy.com